Will anti-nuclear protests help bring democracy to China?

New nuclear power construction is based on lies. Usually in the west it is based on lies about how much it will cost and how long it will take to build. In Finland the newest 3rd generation reactor is already over double the planned cost and time for construction. At the newest French reactor in Flamanville similar delays and overruns are mounting up.

In China, one of the lies is about population size. China requires that the population within a 10 km radius be under 100,000 people, in this range near the under-construction Wangjiang reactor the population is over 150K. And China is notorious for displacing villagers who are inconveniently in the way of large projects. Over 1.2 million were displaced for the 3 gorges hydro project in 2008.

In some senses, this protest is a classical anti-nuclear one. Most of the benefits of the reactor are going to Pengze county, while much of the risk is being born by the lower income Anhui province, which is one of he countries poorest and just across the river from the plant. The power companies responsible for the project are refusing to talk with the media about the protest. The construction site has seen seismic activity, as recently as 2005 a 5.7 earthquake shook Jiujiang 80 km away. Even Wikileaks has released information showing the technology being used is dated and 100 times less safe than Gen 3 reactors, according to Westinghouse, which is also famous for its lies.

But what is unusual is that the Chinese residents and local government are willing to protest at all. These do not take the form of protests in the street, rather (so far) they have been of the form of local petitions which were then carried by the local government to the national energy authority, Last month the provincial government debated opposition to the reactor. Even the official Chinese media has claimed that worries about this reactor have drawn national attention.